Congressional Record S. 8711-2 - Mansfield of Montana

June 10, 1970 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE 88711
MANSFIELD OF MONTANA
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, last
Sunday, there appeared in newspapers
throughout the United States an article
by Saul Pett of the Associated Press
entitled "Mansfield of Montana." It cap­tures
in a highly accurate way what
those of us who serve with him know
about the majority leader.
In an atmosphere of public relations
experts, image-makers, and media spec­taculars,
MIKE MANSFIELD of Montana is
a rare man. He occupies one of the most
powerful positions in the Government of
the United States, yet he constantly
eschews both the trappings and perqui­sities
of power.
In an age of cant and phony sophisti­cation,
MIKE MANSFIELD is a man of
strong character, simple tastes, and fierce
honesty. Would that we had many, many
more like him.
And combined with this strong sense of
personal integrity Senator MANSFIELD is
well read, deeply philosophical, and holds
strong convictions developed from a
foundation of fact and information.
Mr. President, I would like to give some
of the flavor of this remarkable article
by quoting- one brief paragraph about
the majority leader.
This is what Saul Pett writes:
He is in a position of power which, it Is
commonly agreed, he uses with all the re­spectful
care of a yeoman carrying the crown
jewels, to a coronation. On both sides of the
aisle, in an age of alarums. of strident voices
and personal image-building, old-fashion~d
words Ilke honest, fair, humble, quiet, guile­less,
nice, unassuming and patriotic cling w
him like stubborn vines. Mike Mansfield of
Montana Is, perhaps, the last of the low pro­files,
a man so singularly uncolorful and so
Indifferent to personal charisma that he Is,
these days, singularly colorful 1
May I add one other word. Under the
leadership of the Senator from Mon­tana,
the Senate is a pleasant and happy
place in which to serve. It mirrors to an
amazing degree the personality of its
leader. It is an institution where issues
are hammered out, dissent and minority
views heard, and equal handed fairness
is dispensed. Meanwhile, the Senate re­tains
its essential civility and humanity.
Because of MIKE MANSFIELD, the Sen­ate
is a place where democracy works.
It is not run as a benevolent dictatorship
or as the province of a modern rhetori­cal
buccaneer. Instead it is a place where
arguments and ideas have an opportu­nity
to be accepted and acted on provided
only that they can survive the clash of
debate.
Senator MANSFIELD's views o! our
troubled world are summed up elo­quently
and precisely in the final two
paragraphs of the article:
In-.his omce Mansfield spoke quietly with
a reporter aoout the country's profound
problems at home and abroad, of the deep
trauma In the land. He drew slowly on his
pipe, pausing deliberately between thoughta.
"W.e can't give up," he said. "This country
Is too young w dle. We'll have w work our
way through our problems and find a greater
maturity. We've been lucky for too many
decades. Now our luck Is running out and
we have to do some thinking."
I ask unanimous consent that the As­sociated
Press article by Mr. Saul Pett
be printed in the RECORD at this point.
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows:
MANSFIELD OF MONTANA
(By Saul Pett)
(NOTE.-He Is a paradox, Mike Mansfield.
A ma.n o! Integrity a.s deep a.s the wise lines
of hJs weathered face, yet holder of one of
governn1ent's most partisan jobs. A m.a.n o!
calm ~n a chamber of clamor who reveres the
presidency but who Is battling a president.
A paradox because even his chief adversary
in the Senate calls the Majority Leader "the
most decent ma.n I've ever met.")
WASHINGTON.-At his place of business, he
fidgets or wanders among the richly finished
mahogany desks or sits with the clerks and
sta.res !rom a lined, leathery !ace with hurt
expresswn at the bronzed clock on the wall
as though time were a personal a.ft'ront.
Often, he wears the anxious look ot an
undertaker who fears that casket won't f!t
through the door; at other times, the pained
look of a school teacher waiting and won­dering
why Jn the hell the kids can't return
faster from recess. He seems to hurt Inside
but outside his patience Is legendary except
tor those rare moments when he mutters
to the chair, "Call the votes, damn Jt.''
Under the skylight outllnlng the Great
Seal of hJs country, he returns to the first
seat on the right of the center aisle In the
front row, the chair of an extraordinary man
In an lll-defined Job at an extraordinary
time. He Is the Democratic majority leader
of the United States Senate, In a season of
constitutional crisis, a time of greater rup­ture
between the Senate and the PTesldent
of the United States than any, since the days
of Woodrow Wilson.
None of this Is to the liking of Mike Mans­field,
who Is awed by the of!!ce of the presi­dency
but not by presldenta, who reveres the
Institutions of government and Is constantly
pointing out that Its occupanta are only
transient. It happens, too, that he Is pro­foundly
opposed to the war In VIetnam and
Cambodia and Is orchestrating the bipartisan
effort w define and limit the president's war­making
powers.
He Is In a position ot power which, It Is
commonly agreed, he uses with all the re­spectful
care of a yeoman carrying the crown
jewels, to a coronation. On both sides of the
aisle, Jn an age of alarurns, of strident voices
and personal Jmage-bulldlng, old-fashioned
words like honest, fair, humble, quiet, guile­less,
nice, unassuming and patriotic cling to
him like stubborn vines. Mike Mansfield of
Montana Is, perhaps, the last of the low pro­files,
a man so singularly uncolorful and
so Indifferent to personal charisma that he Js,
these days, singularly colorful.
"The most decent man I've ever met In
public life," says Hugh Scott, Republican
minority leader, of the enemy general across
the aisle. "He's fair. His word rates In fine­ness
above the gold at Fort Knox."
In 1964, Mansfield's last election year, Ev­erett
Dirksen, then Republlcan minority
leader. threw b~ck his classic mane, rose on
the floor of the Senate and commUted what
he called "political heresy.'' He hoped pub­licly
that Mansfield would be back. He praised
him as a leader who leads "through sheer
force of character and gentility," not through
drive. Dirksen said he would go almost any­where
to campaign for Republ.lcans, even to
the moon, but please, not Montana.
Northern Democratic llberals, SOuthern
Democratic conservatives, moderate Repub­licans,
conservative Repu bllcans: there a.re
apparently n.o anti-Mansfield senators as such
these days. Some have complained mildly
in the past that he could be more effective
a.s party leader by being more partlsanly ag­gressive.
Others, apparently a large majority,
insist that this ex-miner and ex-Marine ts
effective by being one of the least combative
men in the Senate. In any case, says a mem­ber
of the Senate staff, Mike Mansfield, at 67,
In his ninth year as majority leader and his
18th as senator from Montana., "has now
grown Into a kind of untouchable--nobody
dares really zing him."
By the usual standards of polltlcs, Mans­field
is as dynamic as a celery stick. "He Is
the original tell-it-llke-Jt-ls m.a.n, bland,
straight-out, completely devoid of !rllls, !an­fare
or plumage," says an admiring Hubert
Humphrey. "I've met many Jokers who know
how to be clever. Mike has something more re­markable.
He knows how to be sensible."
He may also be the Gary Cooper of na­tional
politics, the exception who thinks that
one word can be better than 10. He Is the
bane· of TV panel shows where, it Is said,
his five favorite answers are: "Yep. Nope.
Maybe. Can't say. Don't know." That may
be exaggeration but It Is a !act that on TV's
"Issues and Answers," !or example, the panel
normally gets w ask about 25 questions In
a half hour. With Mansfield they asked 76.
Picture, I! you can, this scene In the White
House, which violates Newton's law of mo­tion
that every action demands an opposite
and equal reaction. Lyndon Johnson Is presi­dent
and he Is conferring with the Demo­cratic
leaders of Congress. He particularly
wants something !rom Mansfield, who was
once his protege and succeeded him as Sen­ate
leader. The President rises, warming to
his task, circles his preY', gestures, cries with
passion, pleads, cajoles, invokes the gods
of patriotism and party. The president sub­sides
and awaits the reply from the thin man
from Montana.
"Mike," said a man who was there, "simply
would keep his firm jaw up tight, pul! on
his pipe and answer, 'yes!' or 'no' or 'won't
work.' It was llke stepping from a very hot
bath Into very cold water."
There is a searing no-nonsense quallty
about Mansfield, the leader of the club who
Is not clubby, a man not given to small talk
or lounging In the Senate cloakroom to gos­sip.
He has Jn his office a photograph blown
up to about four-by-six feet. It Is one of
those accidentally tunny pictures taken In
the Rose Garden of the White House after
a congressional leadership meeting In 1962
with President Kennedy. The leaders have
just concluded a news conference and seem
to be suspended in arrested motion. Vice
President Johnson looks vaguely at the
empty mike. Sen. Hubert Humphrey looks
vaguely over his shoulder. Other leaders
seem to have nothing to do, except Mans­field,
who Is walking firmly out of the pic­ture,
his back to the camera. Kennedy In­scribed
tile photograph:
"To Mike, who knows when to stay and
when to go."
Mansfield employs no press secretary,
sends out few releases and, unllke most who
do, does not have his picture or name let­tered
largely on the material. In a chamber
of galloping egos, he rarely claims credit
for anything and praise makes him uncom­fortable.
He has been one of the few men
In Washington consistently believed when
he denies having any ambitions beyond the
Senate.
Mike Mansfield Papers, Series 21, Box 46 , Folder 32, Mansfield Library, University of Montana.
88712 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE June 10, 1970
In 1964, when President Johnson seemed
to be shopping around elaborately for a vice
president, James Rowe, a friend and Demo­cratic
stra.teglst, asked MANSFIELD: NAIJ.y
feelers from the Wblte House?"
"No," said the man from Montana, "and
there better not be."
necently a staff assistant asked the ma­jority
lead& when he was going to have his
portrait done to hang one day In the Capitol
with those ot past lea.ders. .
"What for?" asked Mansfield.
"For history's sake."
"When I'm gone, I want to be forgot­ten."
Period.
Mansfield's Interest In materlal things or
the tmpplngs of power Is low. The only things
he personally acquires a.re pocket mysteries
and Dixieland jazz records. He and his wife,
Maureen, bought their first and only house
In 1952 without his seeing It; he thought any
choice of hers would be fine with him. His
clothes suggest an underpaid college pro­fessor
of the '30s, which he was, and even
when they aren't there actua.l.ly, one Imagines
there a.re leather patches on his elbows. It
took him yea.rs to get comfortable In the
bl.g black Ca.dlllac that goes with the job of
lea.der, frequently grumbling about being a
"limousine liberal." He chose a modest ofllce
as lea.der Instead of the huge "Taj Mahal"
occupied by Johnson. l"riends find all this
remarkable In a man who has known much
poverty In his life ....
Born of Irish Immigrant parents In Man­hattan,
father a hotel porter, mother died
early ... Carted off to Montana to llve with
relatives. Kerosene lamps, no Inside plumb­Ing,
Sa.turday night baths In a wash tub of
water heated on the stove ... Fibbing a.bout
his age at 14, joined Navy In first world war,
then the Army, later the Ma.rlnes, making
him rare alumnus of all three services ...
Worked eight yea.rs In Montana copper mines
2 800 feet down for $4.25 a day In the De­p'resslon
... At urging of wife, who cashed
In her life Insurance, completed education,
getting last high school credit and BA from
Montana State almost simultaneously, at
30 ... Came home one day with proud pur­chase:
four pounds of hamburger for 25
cents. Wife cried. "I guess she felt I squan­dered
the money. We had no Icebox and the
window s!ll wasn't much help In July ... "
It Is also said that one of the most lmpM­sloned
speeches of his Senate ca.reer was de­livered
In successful opposition to the
threatened closing of a Veterans hospltaJ. In
Mlles.City.
But nothing Is apt to make Mike Mans·
field flare quicker than any reflection on his
Independence. In the years of the Johnson
presidency, he was cons:j;antly and sternly
reminding reporters he was not the presi­dent's
majority leader but the Senate's. At
a dinner party once, the lady on his right
made the mistake of asking, "And what are
your people back In Montana telling you to
do on this Issue, senator?"
"Madame," said the man from Montana,
"my · people don't tell me what to do. They
sent me here. I do the voting."
In the view of James Rowe and others,
Mansfield comes as close to the tradition
of Edmund Burke, the 18th century British
statesman, as anyone they know. Burke told
the voters of Bristol, In a classic statement
of the legislator's role: "Your representative
owes you not his Industry only, but his judg­ment;
and he betrays Instead of serving you
If he sacrifices It to your opinion."
The job of majority leader, which Is not
mentioned in either the Constitution or The
Rules of the Senate, Is what tradition and
the leader make of lt. Lyndon Baines John­son
made the most ·of lt. He drove with a
bull whip, wheedled, pressured, arm-twisted,
jugular-squeezed, threatened, dispersed or
withheld favors .to push through legislation.
He was a one-man decathalon.
Mansfield works almost as though from a
clvlcs bOOk. He relies on gentle persuasion,
accommodation and understanding. He cllngs
to the notion that all senators are equal and
each state has two, that each Is a man of
consequence who should be free to exercise
his own judgment. He encourages committee
chairman to floor-manage their own bllls on
the simple !ogle that they know most about
them. He encourages young senators to speak
up because be values their "currency." He
rarely lobbies for votes and then only to the
extend of saying." If you can see your way
clear to go with me on this, I'd appreciate
lt.~
"Some senators like to be shoved around
and told what to do," says WilHam Fulbright
of Arkansas. "But Mike rarely even tells you
how he11 vote unless you ask him. Which Is
proper. It's all right for other senators to
lobby senators but not the leader."
Hugh Scott says, "Thei1) Is no cuteness or
deviousness In him." Which means Repub­licans
as well as Democrats trust him and
are not nervous about leaving town for fear
the majority leader might suddenly rejuggle
the calendar or try to slip through a last­minute
amendment.
With an absence of cuteness, an abundance
of trust and a soupcon of persuasion, Mans­field
steered the leviathan bulk of Great
Society legislation through the Senate. He
ha.d, of course, consideration help, on tha
bridge and In the holler room, from the big
mover and shaker In the White House.
Since the Johnson days, he has been per­sonally
credited with revltallzlng the Demo­cratic
pollcy committee In the Senate, pull­ing
together such dlsparates as Richard Rus­sell
of Georgia and Edmund Musk!e of Maine,
Robert Byrd or West VIrginia and John Pas­tore
of Rhode Island. It was Mansfield who
reportedly 1ed the committee and ultimately
the Democratic-controlled senate to adoption
of a tax reform bill, an amendment that
would give 18-year-olds the vote, a resolution
call!ng for troop withdrawals In Europe and
another warning the president he could make
no binding national commitments abroad
without the approval of Congress.
His greatest frustration in publlc life,
Mansfield says, has been his inablllty to affect
recent presidential thinking about South­east
Asia.
A recognized expert on the Fa.r East, he
made fact-finding trips out there for six
presidents, Including Johnson and Nixon
Nonetheless, he was unable to dissuade John­son
from escalation In VIetnam or Nixon
from Incursion into Cambodia, which he
visited last yea.r at the president's behest.
Aides say Mansfield agonizes before oppos­ing
any president, such Is his respect ·for the
ofllce and his compassion for the burdened
tenant. He, himself, says of the Johnson
days :
"It's not easy to be the only one to say no
to the president In that oval room, where he
Is surrouns:ted by all his advisers and chiefs
o! staff. I guess I had to do that a dozen
times."
Until Cambodia, Mansfield sa1d he thottght
the Nixon pol!cy In Vietnam was In the right
direction-out--but hoped troop withdrawals
could be speeded up. He was quick to ac­knowledge
agreement with the President
when he thought he was right. When Nixon
briefed Congressional leaders on his plans
for the strategic arms llmltatlon talks, the
Democratic leader was the first to respond
to the Republlcan president, saying, "I think
you've made the best choice. I will support
you."
Then came Cambodia, about which Mans-field
and other congressional leaders were
briefed briefly by the president after the
operation ha.d started, That night the major­ity
leader had trouble sleeping. He put
pillows over the phones ln his house and tried
to sort out his thoughts. The next morning
he looked l!ke he had been kicked In the
stomach. He ha.d, he explained to a reporter,
been thinking of the spreading war, the
problems and divisiveness a.t home. "I've
never beEm so down In the dumps in my life­time,"
sald the man from Montana who
almost never says never.
On the floor o! the Senate, he said several
times how much he regretted differing with
the president but spoke out against Cam­bodia
and warned, "There Is grave danger
the Parrots Beak may well turn out to be
an albatross." Off the floor, he won agreement
from Scott to ask all relevant Senate com­mittee
chairmen to give top priority to any­thing
dealjng with Cambodia. and VIetnam.
He also saw to It, says an aide, that the
various attempts to llmlt the presidents war­making
powers be brought up one week as
a "bu!lding-block" operation In a rising de­bate
over the constitutional Issue between
President and Congress.
In his ofllce, Mansfield spoke quietly with
a reporter about the country's profound
problems at home and abroa.d, or the d.eep
trauma in the land. He drew slowly on his
pipe, pausing deliberately between thoughts.
"We can't give up," he said. "This country
Is too young to die. We11 have to work our
way through our problems and find a greater
maturity. We've ·been lucky for too many
decades. Now our luck is running out and we
have to do some thinking."
Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, will the
Senator yield?
Mr. PROXMIRE. I yield.
Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, I associ­ate
myself wtth the remarks of the dis­tinguished
Senator from Wisconsin. I
thank the Senator for having this excep­tional
article prlnted in the RECORD. I
read it with the same sense of appreci­ation-
that the Senator has mentioned
in the course of his remarks.
We have a majority leader who is a
completely una.ssmning and utterly un­oontrtved
man. And in this age of image
making, particularly in the field of poll­tics,
that is a rare quality that commends
our majority leader most highly, andre­flects
great credit upon the Senate and
UPon the ~·h'Jle political proff'."Slron.
We ·r:_; . .,·~ :: .. ,: • ,, l<ke -Mrir:
MANS~'H.LD.
Mike Mansfield Papers, Series 21, Box 46 , Folder 32, Mansfield Library, University of Montana.

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Transcript

June 10, 1970 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- SENATE 88711
MANSFIELD OF MONTANA
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, last
Sunday, there appeared in newspapers
throughout the United States an article
by Saul Pett of the Associated Press
entitled "Mansfield of Montana." It cap­tures
in a highly accurate way what
those of us who serve with him know
about the majority leader.
In an atmosphere of public relations
experts, image-makers, and media spec­taculars,
MIKE MANSFIELD of Montana is
a rare man. He occupies one of the most
powerful positions in the Government of
the United States, yet he constantly
eschews both the trappings and perqui­sities
of power.
In an age of cant and phony sophisti­cation,
MIKE MANSFIELD is a man of
strong character, simple tastes, and fierce
honesty. Would that we had many, many
more like him.
And combined with this strong sense of
personal integrity Senator MANSFIELD is
well read, deeply philosophical, and holds
strong convictions developed from a
foundation of fact and information.
Mr. President, I would like to give some
of the flavor of this remarkable article
by quoting- one brief paragraph about
the majority leader.
This is what Saul Pett writes:
He is in a position of power which, it Is
commonly agreed, he uses with all the re­spectful
care of a yeoman carrying the crown
jewels, to a coronation. On both sides of the
aisle, in an age of alarums. of strident voices
and personal image-building, old-fashion~d
words Ilke honest, fair, humble, quiet, guile­less,
nice, unassuming and patriotic cling w
him like stubborn vines. Mike Mansfield of
Montana Is, perhaps, the last of the low pro­files,
a man so singularly uncolorful and so
Indifferent to personal charisma that he Is,
these days, singularly colorful 1
May I add one other word. Under the
leadership of the Senator from Mon­tana,
the Senate is a pleasant and happy
place in which to serve. It mirrors to an
amazing degree the personality of its
leader. It is an institution where issues
are hammered out, dissent and minority
views heard, and equal handed fairness
is dispensed. Meanwhile, the Senate re­tains
its essential civility and humanity.
Because of MIKE MANSFIELD, the Sen­ate
is a place where democracy works.
It is not run as a benevolent dictatorship
or as the province of a modern rhetori­cal
buccaneer. Instead it is a place where
arguments and ideas have an opportu­nity
to be accepted and acted on provided
only that they can survive the clash of
debate.
Senator MANSFIELD's views o! our
troubled world are summed up elo­quently
and precisely in the final two
paragraphs of the article:
In-.his omce Mansfield spoke quietly with
a reporter aoout the country's profound
problems at home and abroad, of the deep
trauma In the land. He drew slowly on his
pipe, pausing deliberately between thoughta.
"W.e can't give up" he said. "This country
Is too young w dle. We'll have w work our
way through our problems and find a greater
maturity. We've been lucky for too many
decades. Now our luck Is running out and
we have to do some thinking."
I ask unanimous consent that the As­sociated
Press article by Mr. Saul Pett
be printed in the RECORD at this point.
There being no objection, the article
was ordered to be printed in the RECORD,
as follows:
MANSFIELD OF MONTANA
(By Saul Pett)
(NOTE.-He Is a paradox, Mike Mansfield.
A ma.n o! Integrity a.s deep a.s the wise lines
of hJs weathered face, yet holder of one of
governn1ent's most partisan jobs. A m.a.n o!
calm ~n a chamber of clamor who reveres the
presidency but who Is battling a president.
A paradox because even his chief adversary
in the Senate calls the Majority Leader "the
most decent ma.n I've ever met.")
WASHINGTON.-At his place of business, he
fidgets or wanders among the richly finished
mahogany desks or sits with the clerks and
sta.res !rom a lined, leathery !ace with hurt
expresswn at the bronzed clock on the wall
as though time were a personal a.ft'ront.
Often, he wears the anxious look ot an
undertaker who fears that casket won't f!t
through the door; at other times, the pained
look of a school teacher waiting and won­dering
why Jn the hell the kids can't return
faster from recess. He seems to hurt Inside
but outside his patience Is legendary except
tor those rare moments when he mutters
to the chair, "Call the votes, damn Jt.''
Under the skylight outllnlng the Great
Seal of hJs country, he returns to the first
seat on the right of the center aisle In the
front row, the chair of an extraordinary man
In an lll-defined Job at an extraordinary
time. He Is the Democratic majority leader
of the United States Senate, In a season of
constitutional crisis, a time of greater rup­ture
between the Senate and the PTesldent
of the United States than any, since the days
of Woodrow Wilson.
None of this Is to the liking of Mike Mans­field,
who Is awed by the of!!ce of the presi­dency
but not by presldenta, who reveres the
Institutions of government and Is constantly
pointing out that Its occupanta are only
transient. It happens, too, that he Is pro­foundly
opposed to the war In VIetnam and
Cambodia and Is orchestrating the bipartisan
effort w define and limit the president's war­making
powers.
He Is In a position ot power which, It Is
commonly agreed, he uses with all the re­spectful
care of a yeoman carrying the crown
jewels, to a coronation. On both sides of the
aisle, Jn an age of alarurns, of strident voices
and personal Jmage-bulldlng, old-fashioned
words like honest, fair, humble, quiet, guile­less,
nice, unassuming and patriotic cling to
him like stubborn vines. Mike Mansfield of
Montana Is, perhaps, the last of the low pro­files,
a man so singularly uncolorful and
so Indifferent to personal charisma that he Js,
these days, singularly colorful.
"The most decent man I've ever met In
public life" says Hugh Scott, Republican
minority leader, of the enemy general across
the aisle. "He's fair. His word rates In fine­ness
above the gold at Fort Knox."
In 1964, Mansfield's last election year, Ev­erett
Dirksen, then Republlcan minority
leader. threw b~ck his classic mane, rose on
the floor of the Senate and commUted what
he called "political heresy.'' He hoped pub­licly
that Mansfield would be back. He praised
him as a leader who leads "through sheer
force of character and gentility" not through
drive. Dirksen said he would go almost any­where
to campaign for Republ.lcans, even to
the moon, but please, not Montana.
Northern Democratic llberals, SOuthern
Democratic conservatives, moderate Repub­licans,
conservative Repu bllcans: there a.re
apparently n.o anti-Mansfield senators as such
these days. Some have complained mildly
in the past that he could be more effective
a.s party leader by being more partlsanly ag­gressive.
Others, apparently a large majority,
insist that this ex-miner and ex-Marine ts
effective by being one of the least combative
men in the Senate. In any case, says a mem­ber
of the Senate staff, Mike Mansfield, at 67,
In his ninth year as majority leader and his
18th as senator from Montana., "has now
grown Into a kind of untouchable--nobody
dares really zing him."
By the usual standards of polltlcs, Mans­field
is as dynamic as a celery stick. "He Is
the original tell-it-llke-Jt-ls m.a.n, bland,
straight-out, completely devoid of !rllls, !an­fare
or plumage" says an admiring Hubert
Humphrey. "I've met many Jokers who know
how to be clever. Mike has something more re­markable.
He knows how to be sensible."
He may also be the Gary Cooper of na­tional
politics, the exception who thinks that
one word can be better than 10. He Is the
bane· of TV panel shows where, it Is said,
his five favorite answers are: "Yep. Nope.
Maybe. Can't say. Don't know." That may
be exaggeration but It Is a !act that on TV's
"Issues and Answers" !or example, the panel
normally gets w ask about 25 questions In
a half hour. With Mansfield they asked 76.
Picture, I! you can, this scene In the White
House, which violates Newton's law of mo­tion
that every action demands an opposite
and equal reaction. Lyndon Johnson Is presi­dent
and he Is conferring with the Demo­cratic
leaders of Congress. He particularly
wants something !rom Mansfield, who was
once his protege and succeeded him as Sen­ate
leader. The President rises, warming to
his task, circles his preY', gestures, cries with
passion, pleads, cajoles, invokes the gods
of patriotism and party. The president sub­sides
and awaits the reply from the thin man
from Montana.
"Mike" said a man who was there, "simply
would keep his firm jaw up tight, pul! on
his pipe and answer, 'yes!' or 'no' or 'won't
work.' It was llke stepping from a very hot
bath Into very cold water."
There is a searing no-nonsense quallty
about Mansfield, the leader of the club who
Is not clubby, a man not given to small talk
or lounging In the Senate cloakroom to gos­sip.
He has Jn his office a photograph blown
up to about four-by-six feet. It Is one of
those accidentally tunny pictures taken In
the Rose Garden of the White House after
a congressional leadership meeting In 1962
with President Kennedy. The leaders have
just concluded a news conference and seem
to be suspended in arrested motion. Vice
President Johnson looks vaguely at the
empty mike. Sen. Hubert Humphrey looks
vaguely over his shoulder. Other leaders
seem to have nothing to do, except Mans­field,
who Is walking firmly out of the pic­ture,
his back to the camera. Kennedy In­scribed
tile photograph:
"To Mike, who knows when to stay and
when to go."
Mansfield employs no press secretary,
sends out few releases and, unllke most who
do, does not have his picture or name let­tered
largely on the material. In a chamber
of galloping egos, he rarely claims credit
for anything and praise makes him uncom­fortable.
He has been one of the few men
In Washington consistently believed when
he denies having any ambitions beyond the
Senate.
Mike Mansfield Papers, Series 21, Box 46 , Folder 32, Mansfield Library, University of Montana.
88712 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE June 10, 1970
In 1964, when President Johnson seemed
to be shopping around elaborately for a vice
president, James Rowe, a friend and Demo­cratic
stra.teglst, asked MANSFIELD: NAIJ.y
feelers from the Wblte House?"
"No" said the man from Montana, "and
there better not be."
necently a staff assistant asked the ma­jority
lead& when he was going to have his
portrait done to hang one day In the Capitol
with those ot past lea.ders. .
"What for?" asked Mansfield.
"For history's sake."
"When I'm gone, I want to be forgot­ten."
Period.
Mansfield's Interest In materlal things or
the tmpplngs of power Is low. The only things
he personally acquires a.re pocket mysteries
and Dixieland jazz records. He and his wife,
Maureen, bought their first and only house
In 1952 without his seeing It; he thought any
choice of hers would be fine with him. His
clothes suggest an underpaid college pro­fessor
of the '30s, which he was, and even
when they aren't there actua.l.ly, one Imagines
there a.re leather patches on his elbows. It
took him yea.rs to get comfortable In the
bl.g black Ca.dlllac that goes with the job of
lea.der, frequently grumbling about being a
"limousine liberal." He chose a modest ofllce
as lea.der Instead of the huge "Taj Mahal"
occupied by Johnson. l"riends find all this
remarkable In a man who has known much
poverty In his life ....
Born of Irish Immigrant parents In Man­hattan,
father a hotel porter, mother died
early ... Carted off to Montana to llve with
relatives. Kerosene lamps, no Inside plumb­Ing,
Sa.turday night baths In a wash tub of
water heated on the stove ... Fibbing a.bout
his age at 14, joined Navy In first world war,
then the Army, later the Ma.rlnes, making
him rare alumnus of all three services ...
Worked eight yea.rs In Montana copper mines
2 800 feet down for $4.25 a day In the De­p'resslon
... At urging of wife, who cashed
In her life Insurance, completed education,
getting last high school credit and BA from
Montana State almost simultaneously, at
30 ... Came home one day with proud pur­chase:
four pounds of hamburger for 25
cents. Wife cried. "I guess she felt I squan­dered
the money. We had no Icebox and the
window s!ll wasn't much help In July ... "
It Is also said that one of the most lmpM­sloned
speeches of his Senate ca.reer was de­livered
In successful opposition to the
threatened closing of a Veterans hospltaJ. In
Mlles.City.
But nothing Is apt to make Mike Mans·
field flare quicker than any reflection on his
Independence. In the years of the Johnson
presidency, he was cons:j;antly and sternly
reminding reporters he was not the presi­dent's
majority leader but the Senate's. At
a dinner party once, the lady on his right
made the mistake of asking, "And what are
your people back In Montana telling you to
do on this Issue, senator?"
"Madame" said the man from Montana,
"my · people don't tell me what to do. They
sent me here. I do the voting."
In the view of James Rowe and others,
Mansfield comes as close to the tradition
of Edmund Burke, the 18th century British
statesman, as anyone they know. Burke told
the voters of Bristol, In a classic statement
of the legislator's role: "Your representative
owes you not his Industry only, but his judg­ment;
and he betrays Instead of serving you
If he sacrifices It to your opinion."
The job of majority leader, which Is not
mentioned in either the Constitution or The
Rules of the Senate, Is what tradition and
the leader make of lt. Lyndon Baines John­son
made the most ·of lt. He drove with a
bull whip, wheedled, pressured, arm-twisted,
jugular-squeezed, threatened, dispersed or
withheld favors .to push through legislation.
He was a one-man decathalon.
Mansfield works almost as though from a
clvlcs bOOk. He relies on gentle persuasion,
accommodation and understanding. He cllngs
to the notion that all senators are equal and
each state has two, that each Is a man of
consequence who should be free to exercise
his own judgment. He encourages committee
chairman to floor-manage their own bllls on
the simple !ogle that they know most about
them. He encourages young senators to speak
up because be values their "currency." He
rarely lobbies for votes and then only to the
extend of saying." If you can see your way
clear to go with me on this, I'd appreciate
lt.~
"Some senators like to be shoved around
and told what to do" says WilHam Fulbright
of Arkansas. "But Mike rarely even tells you
how he11 vote unless you ask him. Which Is
proper. It's all right for other senators to
lobby senators but not the leader."
Hugh Scott says, "Thei1) Is no cuteness or
deviousness In him." Which means Repub­licans
as well as Democrats trust him and
are not nervous about leaving town for fear
the majority leader might suddenly rejuggle
the calendar or try to slip through a last­minute
amendment.
With an absence of cuteness, an abundance
of trust and a soupcon of persuasion, Mans­field
steered the leviathan bulk of Great
Society legislation through the Senate. He
ha.d, of course, consideration help, on tha
bridge and In the holler room, from the big
mover and shaker In the White House.
Since the Johnson days, he has been per­sonally
credited with revltallzlng the Demo­cratic
pollcy committee In the Senate, pull­ing
together such dlsparates as Richard Rus­sell
of Georgia and Edmund Musk!e of Maine,
Robert Byrd or West VIrginia and John Pas­tore
of Rhode Island. It was Mansfield who
reportedly 1ed the committee and ultimately
the Democratic-controlled senate to adoption
of a tax reform bill, an amendment that
would give 18-year-olds the vote, a resolution
call!ng for troop withdrawals In Europe and
another warning the president he could make
no binding national commitments abroad
without the approval of Congress.
His greatest frustration in publlc life,
Mansfield says, has been his inablllty to affect
recent presidential thinking about South­east
Asia.
A recognized expert on the Fa.r East, he
made fact-finding trips out there for six
presidents, Including Johnson and Nixon
Nonetheless, he was unable to dissuade John­son
from escalation In VIetnam or Nixon
from Incursion into Cambodia, which he
visited last yea.r at the president's behest.
Aides say Mansfield agonizes before oppos­ing
any president, such Is his respect ·for the
ofllce and his compassion for the burdened
tenant. He, himself, says of the Johnson
days :
"It's not easy to be the only one to say no
to the president In that oval room, where he
Is surrouns:ted by all his advisers and chiefs
o! staff. I guess I had to do that a dozen
times."
Until Cambodia, Mansfield sa1d he thottght
the Nixon pol!cy In Vietnam was In the right
direction-out--but hoped troop withdrawals
could be speeded up. He was quick to ac­knowledge
agreement with the President
when he thought he was right. When Nixon
briefed Congressional leaders on his plans
for the strategic arms llmltatlon talks, the
Democratic leader was the first to respond
to the Republlcan president, saying, "I think
you've made the best choice. I will support
you."
Then came Cambodia, about which Mans-field
and other congressional leaders were
briefed briefly by the president after the
operation ha.d started, That night the major­ity
leader had trouble sleeping. He put
pillows over the phones ln his house and tried
to sort out his thoughts. The next morning
he looked l!ke he had been kicked In the
stomach. He ha.d, he explained to a reporter,
been thinking of the spreading war, the
problems and divisiveness a.t home. "I've
never beEm so down In the dumps in my life­time"
sald the man from Montana who
almost never says never.
On the floor o! the Senate, he said several
times how much he regretted differing with
the president but spoke out against Cam­bodia
and warned, "There Is grave danger
the Parrots Beak may well turn out to be
an albatross." Off the floor, he won agreement
from Scott to ask all relevant Senate com­mittee
chairmen to give top priority to any­thing
dealjng with Cambodia. and VIetnam.
He also saw to It, says an aide, that the
various attempts to llmlt the presidents war­making
powers be brought up one week as
a "bu!lding-block" operation In a rising de­bate
over the constitutional Issue between
President and Congress.
In his ofllce, Mansfield spoke quietly with
a reporter about the country's profound
problems at home and abroa.d, or the d.eep
trauma in the land. He drew slowly on his
pipe, pausing deliberately between thoughts.
"We can't give up" he said. "This country
Is too young to die. We11 have to work our
way through our problems and find a greater
maturity. We've ·been lucky for too many
decades. Now our luck is running out and we
have to do some thinking."
Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, will the
Senator yield?
Mr. PROXMIRE. I yield.
Mr. CHURCH. Mr. President, I associ­ate
myself wtth the remarks of the dis­tinguished
Senator from Wisconsin. I
thank the Senator for having this excep­tional
article prlnted in the RECORD. I
read it with the same sense of appreci­ation-
that the Senator has mentioned
in the course of his remarks.
We have a majority leader who is a
completely una.ssmning and utterly un­oontrtved
man. And in this age of image
making, particularly in the field of poll­tics,
that is a rare quality that commends
our majority leader most highly, andre­flects
great credit upon the Senate and
UPon the ~·h'Jle political proff'."Slron.
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